Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

One of the biggest failures of this Government is the whole area of affordable housing. In large numbers of local authorities across the State, there is just no plan to roll out affordable housing schemes. I can speak with authority about my home county of Donegal. Again and again, I have submitted questions to the Minister and to his predecessor, Deputy O'Brien. I have appealed to them to put in place affordable housing schemes. If a family in Donegal with two adults and one child earns over €32,250, they cannot go on the social housing list. In order to get a mortgage, they would have to earn between €70,000 and €90,000. If the Minister does not know what wages are like in Donegal, I can tell him that a huge cohort of families are stuck. This is happening all across the State but I am telling the Minister about Donegal because I can speak with authority about it. They cannot go on the social housing list. They cannot get a mortgage. The Minister has no plan for them. He has just abandoned these working families. There is public land all across the State that could be deployed for this purpose and the Government wilfully refuses to do it.

We are hearing again and again the stories of our young people who are telling us they have no other option than to go because they have no hope. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for them to be able to put a roof over their heads. This is the social contract. We told our young people to go to college, get an education and train up in a profession. That is the contract. Get up every morning, go to work and you will have a roof over your head and security for your family, which is the most basic right. That has been denied to them. I genuinely cannot believe the Government has published another plan that fails to address this huge cohort of workers. These are ordinary workers who earn a wage that reflects their reality and life. They cannot do anything. They are stuck. I am not even going to appeal. I have lost hope in the Minister's Government. It is time for a new Government. That is clearly what we will have to work for because the Government is not listening. It is not even listening to its own commission. It is outrageous.

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